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St. Mary's & St. James

St Mary's & St James ward is one of the most sought after locations in Bexley and is named after the Norman church at the end of the High Street. Mentioned in the Doomsday book, the village still manages to retain a village character. Fortunately the Green Belt on the edge of St Mary's & St James acts as an important buffer to inappropriate development. There are 4 Conservation Areas in and around the village.

Your Conservative Councillors are seeking to ensure the four main areas of St Mary's & St. James continue to evolve whilst retaining their unique character, thus making the Ward a popular place. The village is vibrant with only two or three vacant shops and benefits from good bus and train services. We continue to campaign for the Bexley By-Pass to relieve the traffic situation. The Ward has two railway stations with excellent services to London or Dartford and beyond.

Albany Park has its own railway station and well used local shops with no vacant lets. The area has CCTV and in 2011 benefited from a facelift including new lighting, paving and other public realm works.

The Wansunt Road area occupies high ground overlooking the village and is another leafy much sought after part of the area. We have worked hard to protect this area and prevent back land development but encouraged new builds where they compliment.

Baldwyns Park, a short step from Wansunt Road adjoins the historic Joydens Wood and we are presently supporting the Residents Association to extend the local bus service to Sundays - so far without success.

Bexley village has an excellent nightlife and the licensing of establishments has been an aspect of vigilance by us to ensure premises are well run and trouble free. We recently secured a new state of the art digital CCTV system for Bexley High Street.

Areas west of the village centre comprise of a spacious Victorian suburban development built in the same period as the railway and quality inter and post-war residential properties, many having large gardens with trees. There is also the fine Victorian Church of St John the Evangelist adjacent to the Golden Acre open space and play park and the Victorian Parkhurst Gardens.

There are two important rivers passing through St Mary's & St James - the Cray and the Shuttle and we also have Bexley Park Wood which is a surviving remnant of ancient forest. Environmental issues are always to the forefront of our agenda.

Alex Sawyer is the Cabinet member for Community Safety and Leisure, and Alan Downing is a Vice Chairman of the Peoples Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Both Alex and Alan live locally and look forward to helping residents.